DENVER – The 21^st-ranked MSU Denver baseball team has lost only eight games all season.
 
Half of those were at No. 1 Colorado Mesa. Of the remaining four, half were to CSU-Pueblo.
 
So guess who the second-seeded Roadrunners drew for the first round of the double-elimination Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament?
 
Rest assured, MSU Denver won't overlook the fifth-seeded ThunderWolves in the 10 a.m. game Wednesday at Suplizio Field in Grand Junction, Colo.
 
"We've beaten them four out of six, but they've gotten us a couple of times so we'll have to be locked in and ready," MSU Denver coach Ryan Strain said. "It will help us keep our focus. We won a couple of lopsided games with them, but we won a couple of close ones and lost a couple of close ones. Our guys know that they really need to play well to beat them and so we should be in the right frame of mind."
 
As with many teams this time of year, there are multiple goals for the Roadrunners. First is trying to win the RMAC Tournament for the first time ever. Second is to qualify for the NCAA Division II Tournament for the first time ever. Winning the RMAC Tournament, with the automatic berth that goes to the winner, accomplishes both tasks.
 
Only four teams will advance to the NCAA's South Central Regional – down from six this season due changes made as a result of COVID-19. So the Roadrunners are attempting to reach the NCAA Tournament, with arguably their best team in the past 13 years, in the most difficult season to qualify. And the South Central Region is arguably the best in Division II this season, certainly when the top six teams in each region are considered.
 
Common sense says that the Roadrunners are likely the No. 4 team in the region and that they are in reasonably good shape to qualify for the NCAA field. But anything but common sense happened last weekend in the Lone Star Conference, which is the other half of the South Central Region.
 
In the opening weekend of the Lone Star's two-week conference tournament, ninth-place St. Edward's (Texas) crushed top seed and national No. 3 West Texas A&M, winning the final two games of the best-of-3 series by a combined 45-7. The Lone Star's third- and fourth-seeded teams were also knocked out, leaving only ninth-ranked Angelo State (Texas) among the top four seeds advancing to this weekend's double-elimination event.
 
Since it seems likely that Colorado Mesa, West Texas A&M and Angelo State already have strong enough resumes to reach the regional, anyone else winning the Lone Star or RMAC tournaments would likely bump MSU Denver from the field. If Angelo State doesn't win the Lone Star, MSU Denver would almost certainly have to win the RMAC to stay alive. And, if anyone other than Colorado Mesa wins the RMAC, MSU Denver would likely get shut out, too.
 
"The guys will ask because they want to know what's going on and how the system works," Strain said. "But they know we're in the mix and that we're in a good spot, and that we have to play well to stay in the running for an at-large spot. In a normal year, we'd pretty much be in (the NCAA Tournament). The goal is to win the (RMAC) tournament, because then we don't have to worry about it."
 
To get through the double-elimination RMAC, the Roadrunners could find themselves playing as many as six games in four days. And that's where MSU Denver hopes its deep pitching staff becomes a major advantage.
 
Beyond starters Logan Soole (4-1, 2.63 ERA), Cade Crader (7-1, 4.47), Austin Stone (5-1, 3.80) and Jimmy Dobrash (7-1, 4.92), the Roadrunners have a deep and talented cast of relievers.
 
"In baseball it's all about how you pitch," Strain said.
 
If it goes well, MSU Denver could find itself going where it's never gone before by the end of the weekend.
 
"I think our guys know we haven't played in the NCAA postseason, and that's always there, the carrot at the end," Strain said. "But we also didn't play well the last time we were in Grand Junction (the four-game sweep at the hands of Colorado Mesa) and Pueblo has beaten us twice. So there definitely is no lack of motivation. We know that we can control our destiny if we play really well."